State Senate leader tours, talks

North Carolina’s Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger said Wednesday he plans to announce a decision in the next two weeks on whether he’ll run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan.

North Carolina’s Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger said Wednesday he plans to announce a decision in the next two weeks on whether he’ll run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan.

“I expected to make the decision at the end of July but we were not out of session,” said Berger, the District 26 senator from Eden whose movements and actions since the end of the session have all the trappings of a campaign in progress.

“I’ve been traveling and I still need to talk more to Pat, my wife of 41 years, and some other folks,” said the seven-term senator who has a biographical video posted online, a fundraiser employed, and whose learning tours across the state brought him to Craven County all day. “I have not made a decision yet.”

Accompanied by five-term District 6 Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onslow, and first term District 3 Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico, and retired corporate businessman Champ Mitchell, Berger toured the largest Craven County employers, BSH Home Appliances and Cherry Point air station, and attended a luncheon with representatives from area business, civic, and government groups.

Aware a campaign would involve a primary with N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, Berger said his decision will be based on “Whether or not Kay Hagan needs to be replaced — and I think she does — and who is the best person to do that.”

“I haven’t done any fundraising today,” Berger said, as he outlined what he considered the Republican-led legislature’s major accomplishments with obvious passion for the Excellent Public Schools Act of 2013 of which he was the primary sponsor.

The controversial changes in that Act which prompted many teachers to wear red in opposition on the first day of school this week, ends teacher tenure and, for teachers not already receiving credit for it, ends extra pay for a master’s degree. Enhanced competency will be measured with a national test instead.

Berger said the Act makes it possible for good teachers to make more money: the best 25 percent of them to make a total of $5,000 more over each four-year contract period in addition to any incremental across-the-board raises. He said the money is in the budget to fund that.

He said measures of the Act are in place to ensure a better education for students by monitoring their learning deficits in time to correct them before they become part of a state dropout statistic, particularly reading.

“Children learn to read, then read to learn,” Berger said. “If they never get that part and we push them on, they are at a substantial disadvantage.”

At the end of the third grade an assessment will be made to determine whether a child should be retained for a year of intensive literacy training, he said.

Page 2 of 2 - The program is modeled after a Florida plan introduced by then-governor Jeb Bush about 10 years ago. Berger said, “It is a program that provides an enhanced emphasis on reading and literacy in early grades” and on the teaching skills to do that well.

Literacy education will be a required part of new teacher education and they will have to pass a literacy examination, Berger said. “Making sure there are high quality teachers in front of classroom is the most important thing in order to achieve student achievement.”

Berger said his tour of BSH was an excellent one to help him see the range of manufacturing in North Carolina, how they are succeeding and what the state can do to help.

Understanding military bases are essential in dealing with this part of the state, he said, and the military is important to all of us. “I’d never toured Cherry Point and was appreciative of the favorable treatment I received” with the tour escorted by the new base commander, Col. Chris Pappas III.

He said his tour impressed him with “how young and how capable” those in the military are.

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5665 or sue.book@newbernsj.com. Follow her on Twitter@SueJBook.